Badmouthing the PSB

A full bipartisan assault has been launched against the PSB with the ultimate goal of demolition ASAP. Wherever there’s a microphone, every current politician and campaigning wannabe has jumped on the “Kill the PSB” bandwagon, blasting away with all the frantic pejoratives imaginable. It’s been called “not sustainable, a big mistake, dingy, dank, deficient, ugly, dark, dreary, ridiculous, dilapidated, defunct, defective, not nice, no structural integrity, outdated, obsolete, worthless, inefficient, crumbling, poorly designed, white elephant, a mess which must be torn down.”

The mayor labels it “falling down” and “beyond repair.” Those descriptions sound more like Church School, Rock River School, or the old Amerock/Ziock building.

Scrapped after only 30 years? Before this summer is over, we may need every existing jail cell in the greater Rockford area. Since the roof doesn’t leak, the windows aren’t rotted, the floors aren’t sagging, and the walls aren’t falling in (or out), it would be “penny-wise and pound-foolish” to demolish the PSB. The crime rate has a direct effect on Rockford’s dire economic straits. However, crime spiraling out of control does not dictate that taxpayers be dinged again, to satisfy some “visionary” who wants another multimillion-dollar project.

If malevolent hate speech could demolish a building, there would already be a big pile of rubble at 420 West State. Badmouthing the PSB has been elevated to an art form. Everyone denounces it as a veritable hellhole, except those police officers who work there every day.